Atmosphere found on a small icy body beyond Neptune ✎ express

Original: "The first detection of an atmosphere on a trans-Neptunian object beyond Pluto"
arXiv:2605.02243 · 2026-05-04 · arXiv non-exclusive · independent analysis · 1 min
For the first time beyond Neptune, besides Pluto, an atmosphere has been detected on an icy body.

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Beyond Neptune, in the icy belt, astronomers watched as object (612533) 2002 XV93 momentarily occulted a distant star. Using transit method (when a planet dims the star's light for a second, like a fly in front of a lamp), William Borucki and David Charbonneau determined: the light not only dimmed but also shifted in hue — like the air above a campfire. This revealed a thin gaseous veil around a body with a diameter of 250 km. The veil consists of nitrogen with traces of methane and rests on an icy surface. The pressure there is millions of times lower than Earth's — if our atmosphere were like that, a breath would be empty. The veil could be sustained either by icy fountains, cryovolcanoes erupting from the interior, or by an impact from another fragment that knocked out gases. This world is the only one among its neighbors (even Eris and Makemake are silent) that has managed to keep such a ghostly cloak.

The shadow of this object on Earth was as wide as a small town; it was caught thanks to dozens of volunteer telescopes.

Scientists
David CharbonneauIsaac NewtonJohannes KeplerWilliam BoruckiEmile ClapeyronR. A. Rossiter
Concepts
sub neptune exoplanet atmosphere sub neptune formation jwst exoplanet atmospheres troposphere Niño 1+2 El Niño gas giant titan hot jupiter atmospheres neutrino emission neutron star super earth subsurface ocean titanium oxide crust cosmic neutrino neutron star composition earth stellar atmosphere oort cloud